In the past, she and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas have both called for individual EU countries' seats on the UNSC to be "Europeanised".

When Germany was selected to hold one of the 10 non-permanent seats for two years from January 2019, Maas promised Berlin would "interpret it in a European way."

"We want to show that we take the common European seat seriously. Because that remains our aim," he added.

Scholz's sally was the latest way Germany has sought to dispel accusations it has failed to respond to Macron's ambitious hopes to reform the EU and the euro single currency.

While German leaders appear open to deeper cooperation in fields like defence, many have deep reservations about Macron's plans to equip the eurozone with a centrally-managed budget, fearing wealthy countries could end up footing spendthrift neighbours' bills.